The baby has just been born. He's so small. But he already knows something. All mothers think differently. Someone thinks that a newborn can only sleep and eat, while someone says that the baby already understands a lot.
Child development
In reality, of course, the child is small, but he is not a machine to only eat, sleep and dispose of waste. Even in the mother's belly, the child's sense organs begin to form: vision, smell, hearing, taste, muscle sense and touch. From the very first minute of life, a newborn begins to perceive the external world with his six senses, but he still does not understand what he is feeling.
What a baby can do
The baby sees, but does not yet know how to focus his gaze on the object. It is the same with other senses. He does not yet understand that the arms and legs belong to him. With a sharp wave of his own hand, the baby may be frightened. Babies under one year old are often afraid of harsh and bright light. This is due to the weak shell of the eye and the inability to withstand strong bright light. A baby after 3 months is able to distinguish all colors as an adult.
Vision. Do not be intimidated by the fact that the child's eyes are squinting. Eye movements are not yet coordinated. At about 3-4 weeks of age, the baby will learn to focus on a certain object. At this age, he clearly sees everything 20 cm away from him. When breastfeeding, the baby looks with interest and examines the mother's face, which is just 20 cm away.
Hearing. The hearing of the newborn is reduced for the first 2 weeks, because the ear is filled not with air, but with liquid. To distinguish between the voices of mom and dad, music and other noises, the child begins at 3-4 weeks of life. To distinguish from which side the sound and turn on it, the baby will only learn at 2 months. Children after six months may begin to be afraid of strangers and loud noises. This behavior is justified by their attachment to their relatives and fear of strangers and unidentified people.
Taste. The newborn distinguishes between sweet, salty and bitter foods. He happily drinks the sweetened water and cries when something salty or bitter gets into his mouth.
Smell. From birth, the baby can distinguish between pleasant and unpleasant odors. He really likes the smell of mother's milk.
Touch. The face, soles and palms are the most sensitive areas on the body. The baby likes gentle stroking and does not like swaddling, undressing and dressing at all.
Muscular feeling or position of the body in space. Thanks to this sense organ, the child will learn to grab toys, roll over on his stomach and back, sit down, crawl, and then walk. With the help of muscular sense, he will learn to move his tongue, lips, fingers. But before all this, the newborn is still far away. So far, he cannot even, if he wants, open his fist, straighten his arms and legs. Legs and handles are in hypertonicity, i.e. muscle tone is increased. Hypertonia in a child under one month old is normal.
General recommendations
It turns out that a newborn has a fully developed sense of smell, touch and taste, but hearing, vision and muscle sense need to be developed. Parents need to help their baby develop these senses. Playing with toys is necessary for the development of hearing and vision, and physical games and massages for the muscular sense.
